I dropped Axel off this morning for what I hope is his last road trip for a while. He is traveling with his “grandma” Denise and at the show will be in the care of his handler Julia. He is in the best of hands. I heard from Denise earlier this evening, and all is well.

It has been so quiet here, though! Freya has been moping around, looking for her little brother. She gets so annoyed with him when he is here, but she hates it when he is gone. I guess that’s a pretty typical sibling relationship.

I really have nothing else of interest to report, at least nothing that I will be able to stay awake long enough to write about. Not that the topics are boring enough to put me… or you… to sleep. I’m just that tired. See you tomorrow!

Not me, just Axel. And really, he will be home after the weekend. Really!

Huh? You thought he was home for a while after last weekend, and so did I. Imagine my surprise to see a judging program and entry confirmation for the Kentuckiana shows coming up this weekend. Axel wasn’t supposed to be entered, but he was. Honest mistake, no problem.

Oh, wait. After looking at the entry counts… big problem. There are enough male Rottweilers entered each day to make these shows 3-point majors. On three of the four days of the cluster, there are exactly enough male Rottweilers for the 3-point major. If even one dog is absent, the major breaks.

If you are not a psycho dog person, this probably means nothing to you. The short version is that for a dog to earn an AKC championship, he or she must earn points from at least two shows that are major points (3, 4 or 5 points) among the 15 total points required. Especially in this troubled economy, finding a show with enough dogs entered for major points is tough enough. It is a disappointment to go to a show and find that dogs are absent and the points are less than expected. It is even worse to find that a show that was supposed to be a major isn’t, because dogs are absent.

After a lot of phone calls between me, handler, breeder, and assorted friends and colleagues, things are all set for Axel to go on this road trip. He may not win anything (although he might, stranger things have happened) but at least our team won’t be responsible for breaking the major.

After all this, it’s possible that someone else may break the major. That’s ok. Well, no, not really. I’ll want to hurt the one who breaks it after we went through all this ermmm… fun… today to make things happen for us. But it is ok that it won’t have been us that broke it.

Axel and I are both home now. I didn’t get to witness a big win for him at today’s show, but it was very exciting for me anyway to be able to watch him strutting his stuff in the AKC ring. He has very good ring presence and Julia has really helped him to realize his potential. He really seems to enjoy showing, and that makes me happy.

I wish I had pictures or video to show you, but I don’t. In order to make sure I wasn’t a distraction, I was hidden behind a post slightly away from the ring. I could see fine, but there was no way to take photos or videos from that distance.

As I mentioned in a previous post, he needs a few months to grow up and out, so he is back home for a while to do just that. The plan for now is for him to possibly go back out in September or October, and possibly enter an occasional show between now and then.

Right now, we’re both tired from a long day so it’s time to get some rest!

Axel now has 5 points towards his AKC championship, and will hopefully pick up a few more this coming weekend in Columbia, MO. After he’s done showing on Sunday, he’ll be heading home with me for a few months.

We’re not giving up on him! Although he didn’t do much at the Deep South shows, he still came back to win points at some smaller shows back here in the Midwest. His breeder, handler and family are all in agreement that he could use a few months to grow up and out, and then go back out again and hopefully capture his needed majors with ease.

I am so looking forward to seeing him! It will be quite a long drive (about 6.5 hours each way) so I’m very glad to have the new minivan for a more comfortable ride and no worries about mechanical breakdowns in the middle of the vast midwestern wasteland.

I don’t believe I’ve shared the photo from his very first point, so here it is:

Clicking the photo will take you to all of the full-sized photos from his first successful show weekend. Stay tuned! Axel’s show career will continue in the fall, after he’s enjoyed spring and summer fun with family and friends, including an ATTS Temperament Test along with Freya in May.